Author Topic: Frankenmac! What's in a Mac clone?  (Read 2672 times)

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Offline TheSarge

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Frankenmac! What's in a Mac clone?
« on: April 20, 2008, 10:53:05 PM »
A company called Psystar claims that it’s selling a “generic Mac” for $549 (or $399 without OS X). While such a move seems to violate Apple’s end-user license agreement, it indicates just how the age-old topic of running the Mac OS on non-Apple hardware has mutated in this modern, Intel-Mac age.

While I'm not going to advocate that Apple’s users rush out and configure a faux Mac of their very own, the reality is that Apple’s computers are now Intel-based PCs through and through. The existence of modern Mac clones—whether they come in a complete package from the likes Psystar or in pieces from a variety of computer-parts manufacturers—allows me to ask several questions about Apple’s Mac hardware. Yes, it lets me gauge the price and performance of Mac hardware by comparing it to non-Apple hardware. But it also lets me explore a topic that, prior to Apple’s switch to Intel processors, I could only speculate about: The performance of Mac systems that simply don’t exist.

Take the “mythical mid-range Mac minitower,” as Macworld's Dan Frakes called it. While Apple has an excellent selection of laptops, entry-level Macs, and high-end machines, it doesn’t offer anything at all in the way of a moderately powerful expandable tower model. Though the iMac offers good performance, it’s an all-in-one machine with limited expandability and a monitor that not everyone may need. As Dan wrote:

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What I’d like to see is a minitower design with—and this is just one possible configuration that would fulfill my wish—a reasonably powerful processor (perhaps a higher-end Core 2 Duo or a single Xeon); a good graphics card in an upgradeable slot; a decent amount of RAM and hard-drive space; a single free PCI Express slot; and room for one additional hard drive. The ability to swap out the optical drive would be a nice touch.

http://www.macworld.com/article/133028/2008/04/building_mac_clone.html?lsrc=top_1
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Frankenmac! What's in a Mac clone?
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2008, 10:59:43 PM »
I saw this the other day.  I wonder if their knock-off is any good...

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Psystar has changed the name of its OpenMac computer to Open Computer, and the Web site is once again accessible after having been offline for most of Monday, April 14th. The company announced a computer it calls Mac-compatible on Monday under the name of OpenMac, but has since changed the name to Open Computer: The Apple Alternative.

The company is still pitching Open Computer directly at potential Mac OS X users who want to buy their hardware at a lower price than Apple charges. Psystar extensively compares its product, which starts at US$399, to Apple's Mac mini, which starts at $599, those said comparisons never mention issues such as size.

"The Open Computer is a PC that works just like a Mac with Apple's latest operating system OS X 10.5 a.k.a. Leopard, the company said on its Open Computer Web page. "With the Open Computer you can run OS X natively as if you had purchased an expensive Apple computer except that, while paying less, you receive more."

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2008/04/15.1.shtml

I'd like a Mac, but I can only afford a MacBook and not the MacPro I would prefer.  Guess I'll have to run Linux instead.
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